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I overwintered 4 tiny colonies in apideas last winter, only one succumbed in march this year....caused by blimmin mice chewing through the case!!! All mine have apidea supers and a feeder on, this gives 10 frames in each and allows for around a kilo of fondant to be slapped in the top feeder...

Gather you arent a big fan of children then???

Ouch!!....I know how that feels, Just goes to show how quickly things can change with bees though. You'll laugh about it in future though, everything I get up to with my bees seems to make non beekeepers laugh...nervously!!!

Thats good news, but not a surprise to your good self I'll bet.

:willy_nilly::rofl:

Bruising the stores only applies to capped honey...in this case you dont need to bother, just make sure they've got more than enough space to move it up into.

Are there enough supers if any at all on the hive with the brood box full of nectar? if not put one on, preferably drawn if you've got it. Once the new queen is out and about they will soon move the nectar up to allow her space to lay (if they've got space to move it too that is!). It sounds...

Wow!!!.....how much fun do they look!!! excellent bike, and designed by Mike Burrows too

Blimey, I shudder to think how stupid I'd have been if I'd never kept bees then, I'm bad enough now!!! :biggrinjester: Then again though, surely if it made us smarter, we wouldnt be keeping bees and getting stung anyway???

And so your journey begins......enjoy them and savour the excitement of being a new beekeeper, a lovely feeling

It was in the building the Beefarmers and BIBBA were in they also had a nice brightly coloured beehaus out the front of the building. As PH said though, seemed some very cuddly thinking going on on the omlet stand. They were talking to someone interested in keeping one in a terraced house back...

Used to do a lot more cycling than I do these days, but trying to get back into it now to get fit again. I have two bikes at the mo, a hugely overweight carrera mountain bike thats great fun to just go everywhere on, and I have an ancient Quinn's road bike that I had made for me about 15 years...

Geoff, Firstly let me say Yes wholeheartedly I agree, but already this season I've been out to new colonies that have had very gentle stock in them, however these stock have then swarmed and the resulting colony with the new mongrel queen at the helm have turned in to quite vicious nasty scary...

When it finally happens you'll wonder what the fuss was all about I'll bet, when I first started keeping bees I'd never been stung at all, I just ended up building it up and up in my mind until it was way out of proportion. then the day came that one got me. It was sitting on armrest of the car...

Geoff, with the amount of new beekeepers in the craft with no experience of aggressive colonies, or what to do if things start going wrong, then I think the ticking time bomb is a VERY apt analogy. I don't class myself as allergic, and have been keeping bees for a good while yet suffered...

Can you get hold of a frame of eggs from anyone?

I think this year has been one of those rare years where nectar is flowing fast into hives and we have had to be a little early in our supering. If you wait until the brood is covering 75% of the BB then that will only leave 25% for stores, and at the rate they are bringing it in, I'm pretty...

They may be pretty agitated by the activity of the wasps and the newly restricted entrances, I'd open up the entrance block a lot more, if the bees cant get in and out quick enough it will make them a bit miffed to put it mildly Mine are also really bringing in the nectar now after the recent...

My colonies this year have all exhibited no signs of varroa, I'm not naive enough to believe they aren't present, but just low enough in numbers to not be seen or picked up in checks yet. As for brood interruptions, you would get that with any form of swarming be it natural or artificial surely?

I am now convinced there is no point in all this, only time will tell who is right. I myself would prefer to think that we are all beekeepers and can get along. I cant take offence at being called a victorian beekeeper when as far as I can make out they all got along a lot better together than...